Beets Bienniel?

Question

You have excellent content on growing beets and I particularly like that you have a print friendly version, which for me means, easier to read. However, I hoped to understand why beets are generally referred to as Biennial if you can harvest them in 45-50 days?

I understand we are talking life-cycle, but lets say I let the beets grow until next year and they make through the summer/winter temperature swings, what is the value if any to doing so?

It seems like this life-cycle information can be somewhat useless and confusing if all I want to do it eat the beats as soon as possible.

Thanks for the well designed format of the website, this is my first, but not my last visit.

Answer 1

Thank you for visiting our site; we love to help gardeners!

A plant that requires two growing seasons to complete its life-cycle. Year one: vegetative growth. Year two: sexual maturity, seed production. Biennial plants require a period of cold treatment called vernalization in order to initiate flowering in the second year. Seeds can then be collected the 2nd year.